Post-secularism, Liberalism and Their Discontents

This chapter deals with the concepts of secularism and post-secularism as they apply to contexts such as that of India. The chapter argues that the Indian context with all its complexity with all the religious plurality is fecund ground for these debates. In this chapter, we were essentially concerned with pointing out the limits of the concept of post-secularism and how it was not very different from the concept of right to faith, worship and religion. We also discussed how in majoritarian democracies, these liberal concepts all too soon come to disappointment. While agreeing that it is a conceptual progress to speak in terms of post-secular theory, we also mentioned how it was of limited use in societies which had not gone through the transition of secularism and thereby are largely pre-secular. The chapter refers to the Indian context and the many concepts of the secular polity that inform the debates in India.